A rough week with colds, coughs, and itches

Well, my off streak continues. I'm not sure whether to be glad that I'm not knee-deep training for a marathon right now, since this week would represent a huge setback if I were, but either way, being sick always really sucks.

I'm on call on nights again this week. 12 hour shifts, 5 straight days. At least it's better than the 14-hour shifts for 6-7 days that I had to cover in prior years of training (it's nice to be an upper level resident.) Basically, I've been holing up in a cozy radiology suite and parking myself in front of an expensive viewing computer to interpret films for the local hospital in Santa Monica.

Ordinarily, this would be very pleasant for me, but I've been really racked by an annoying cold this week. First the upper respiratory symptoms, and now, I've had 3 days of pretty nasty bronchitis, to the point where my throat feels raw from the nonstop coughing . To add insult to injury, I coughed so much that I managed to bite down right on the center of my tongue as I was eating, so I've got a nice big tongue sore. And today, after my long shift, I notice a strange itching sensation all over my body, and within an hour, I find myself covered with full body hives and swelling, which is likely postviral in origin. Fortunately, this has since resolved. My neck hurts like all heck from the lymph node swelling, and I've got this annoying low-grade headache that's probably a combination of my messed up sleep cycle combined with the cold symptoms that 's really making like a pain. Oh yes, and less I forget, I've still got road rash from my bike crash last week, although my meticulous attention to wound cleanliness and dressing is paying off, as it seems to be healing extremely fast.

I've obviously been doing zero sports-related activity. In fact, I've been nearly convalescent on my bed for most of the day when I'm not at work, since I've been so tired between the coughing and the lack of sleeping. It's funny - when I'm healthy but super-busy, I sometimes fantasize about being mildly sick for a few days, so I can "catch up" on everything. I'm probably only moderately sick now, and can still function pretty well when I motivate, but for sure, those fantasies about productivity are nothing but fantasies when you're having a hard time even taking breaths.

I'm certain that I'm on the improvement end for my cold/cough as of today, even though I still feel pretty lousy. I'm pretty apprehensive about getting back to training, whether it be bike/run/swim, as I feel as if I've lost pretty much everything in the past 1-2 weeks between the sickness and the injuries. I know a week of no-training is really a trivial issue in the grand schemes, but when you've been training 1-2 hours per day on multiple disciplines, and then to go down to zero hours per day, it feels as if you're a different person. I can't believe that most of the American populace lives like I do now in my sickened state at baseline - add our giganto Ameriacn serving sizes and fast food, and we wonder why obesity is such a rampant problem nowadays.

I am, however, looking forward to getting back to the run training. Noteably, during this week, my cold symptoms surpassed that of my chronic foot pain, and it wasn't until I was writing this blog entry that I realized that for the first time in probably 3 months, I went a full day (probably 2) without being bothered by my foot. It's still definitely sore in the same spots, but I think it's definitely ready for some road action now - and I'm excited for that.

Lots of DOMS coming up (delayed onset muscle soreness) between the running, swimming, weightlifiting, and cycling, all of which have to be broken in again. Bring it on.